Robert MacIntyre declined interview requests for a second successive day at the Masters, with the fiery Scot facing a reprimand from Augusta National over his behaviour in the closing stages of the first round. His miserable visit to Georgia ended with a 71, ensuring he missed the cut at seven over par.
The key damage was done on Thursday, when MacIntyre slumped to an 80 including a quadruple bogey nine at the 15th. Live television coverage captured him releasing a series of expletives, whacking the turf in anger on the 14th, and raising a middle-fingered gesture after finding water on the 15th.
Augusta officials are also likely to take a dim view of a social media post on Friday evening, depicting an AI-generated image of MacIntyre as the iconic Masters gnome making an offensive gesture. The Athletic quoted his father, Dougie, as saying his son needs to “tone it down” when things go awry.
MacIntyre’s playing partner, world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, added a 74 to his first-round 70 for an even-par aggregate. Scheffler admitted struggling with the pace of the greens, saying: “I felt like it was rolling nicely today but balls just weren’t dropping. Maybe my reads were a little bit off.”
